Travel News: October 9, 2017

Viking Cruises already reached for the cosmos with its appropriately named first ocean ship—the Viking Star—and the line is at it again.

Not only is the company now set to call its fifth seafaring ship the Viking Orion, but it is also planning a future hydrogen-powered vessel as well as additional riverboats for 2019.

The Viking Ocean Cruises brand welcomed the Viking Sky to New York for the first time this week and while in Manhattan, Viking Chairman Torstein Hagen announced the previously known Viking Spirit will instead be christened as the Viking Orion in July 2018.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT.N) plans to spend $50 million over the next five years to add 100 hotels to its chain in Africa, it said on Thursday, joining other chains keen to tap growing business and international travel on the continent.

One property will open in the Kenyan capital Nairobi by the end of this year and another in the Rwandan capital Kigali in 2018, it said in a statement.

One of the remotest islands in the world is about to enter the modern tourist age.

When the British exiled Napoléon Bonaparte to St. Helena in 1815, it took the conquered emperor a full 10 weeks to reach the island. Two centuries later, it’s still a five-day trip by mail boat—assuming you happen to be starting from somewhere as close as Cape Town, South Africa.

But on Oct. 14, the tiny British overseas territory will get its first-ever scheduled flights. Two weeks later, St. Helena’s first luxury hotel, a 30-room property in a trio of Georgian buildings, will open its doors.

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By: Matt Long

Matt has a true passion for travel. As someone who has a bad case of the travel bug, Matt travels the world in order to share tips on where to go, what to see and how to experience the best the world has to offer.
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